Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Belt drive blues, sorta

Not mine! I helped Jaymo put his on the other day and we took an easy 2 hour job and made it into a hot sweaty swearing cursing back and forth to the parts stores three times 5 hours job.
In his desire to get the drive installed before he left for Laconia, Jaymo had Ozzie make it up and overnight it to him on Saturday. Well, Ozzie called him back later, said it was on the way, but....(here's where it all began) he "thinks" he put the two outer plates on in reverse (of course he did), so if it rubs (duh, of course it did!) to remove the two plates and reverse them so that the thinner plate was on the inside and it stopped rubbing. He even thought ahead enough to send 4 new screws for the plates. Anyway, stripped screws (countersunk very special sizes naturally) and broken EZ-outs were the name of the game by then. So we finally ended up with some nice screw extractors (I will NEVER EVER use the friggin EZ-outs again! They have broken off the last three times I have used them making the job vastly more difficult. Ever try to drill an EZ-out? They're pretty tough buggars) and ended up mangling the stripped screws out. Good thing we had the spares eeh? Hmm, sent spares but couldn't take 15 minutes to be sure the parts were assembled right in the first place?
We then had to straighten, grind, file and align the plates on the front sprocket to get it flush and at least fit like it should. Pretty rough edges on everything too. Just as we finished the sky exploded and Mike never got a chance to try it Saturday. I figure he got it going okay as he hasn't called in a panic yet.
Lesson learned: DO NOT RUSH the manufacturers! Mine was perfect, at least I think it was, but the rush job caused us a ton of headache and a lot more swearing and beer than it should have.
Disengage ramble mode now.

Dinqua,

Yeah, I agree. Here at work, I keep a 24-stage progressive die running (and it breaks down on occasion). So I know first hand that "haste makes waste." As for those damned EZ-outs, yes, I busted those off, and they quite simply can't be drilled on. Their hardness is, oh, about 64 Rockwell (or more). I've had to have them fried out with an EDM machine.

But hey, Dinqua, I want to hear your honest opinion about that belt. My local buddy "Shakey" is leaning heavy toward getting one, but I'm curious about the worth of this upgrade vs. the expense?

-BT

BT,
I love mine, no muss, no fuss, clean, quiet and smoother then the chain. It is pricey, but price is relative to desire and affordability.
I have had mine about 3,000+ miles so far with no problems. Still plenty of torque, only adjusted it once, still nice and tight too.
As far as it being worth it? Well, that's subjective. Let me tell you that Jaymo rode mine about 10 miles and went out and bought one for himself. He was that impressed with it.
I recommend it highly if you can afford it. And, you can always just go back to the chain and sell it if you don't like it. It's not really a hard job either, the swingarm comes right out if you know the swingarm removal tricks. for beer I'll share the trick.

Did the brocken ez out look like this?

I used the little guys since the screw was only 5/32". The little cheap ones from MegaHardware, still not worth a darn.

The only time I have adjusted it was at about 150 miles. It was not really loose, they need to be tight, but I wanted to be sure it was good so I tightened it ever so slightly. It may need a minor tweak again though. Next time you see a bike with a belt, push down on the belt dn see how tight they are. They are supposed to have 3/16" movement with 10 pounds of pressure, with the bike on the sidestand. That's pretty tight. Tight is good, loose is very very bad. Loose belt will slip and cause the belt to wear very quickly. They ar usualy made of some sort of kevlar material that does not stretch at all. The initial adjustment is mostly due to the belt getting broken in a little and the outer shell flexing as it gets broken in. Kind of hard to describe, take a close look at a belt and you can see what I mean.

I tried posting on your other b/d thread only to find it deleted. Dresda only do bits for Classics & I am waiting for Tony Hayward to get back to me regarding AT20 final for SM. I'll open thread if I have any joy. What a splendid site this is.

Thanks Lew. I deleted the other post as soon as I found they are the old style internal belt drives, not the tire drives. Doh.

Are you persecuting me for being an impoverished Briton?

LOL!!

Anybodys belt making a squaeking noise, mine is. I,ve tighened it & sprayed belt dressing on & noise comes back after 50 miles?

Could the sprockets be out of alignment?

I've had my belt on for about 500 miles now and love love love it! It's worth it if you can swinge the cost. Just think, you most likely will never have to buy a new chain, sprockets or lube again. Just the time savings on cleaning the bike from the lube is worth it!

Check that the little front sprocket is on correctly. The thinner of the plates needs to be on the inside. If not, it can rub and make noise like a squeeling sound.
Mine is as quiet as can be, always has been.
Oh yea, do you have the freak installed? If so, check that it's not rubbing on the bracket or toolbox.
If not...nevermind.

zanky13,
Check the alignment. Spin the back wheel and watch how the belt loads onto the gear. My belt has 0 clearance so I can't see if it "tracks" from side to side. No squeeks for me. Call Oz if you can't get it fix, they have a new SM they are using for prototypes (25/26 front gears!)

Good luck!